-- card: 25417 from stack: in.0
-- bmap block id: 0
-- flags: 0000
-- background id: 3797
-- name: 


-- part contents for background part 1
----- text -----

From: stephena@microsoft.UUCP (Stephen Arrants 3/1011)

Date: 2 Mar 88 17:39:20 GMT

In article <5346@well.UUCP>, mitch@well.UUCP (Mitchell Waite) writes:
>.......... In general
> the software creator (be it Digital Research, Lotus, whoever) do a
>crummy job of documentation.

I'd say in *very* general.  Computer documentation has really come a
long way in the past few years.

>It is done last and fast.

I don't think you understand the process of
documentation from the inside at all.  In all the companies I've worked,
the docs never came "fast and last".  The documentation team at
Microsoft, for example,
is included in product development from the start.  Recommendations and
input
from the doc. team is an important part of the total design.
The documentation can take as long as the product
development.

>This leaves a giant hole for
> improvements in the documentation and in some cases the >manufacturer
>never fills the hole [    ]

Nope.  What leaves these holes are:
1.  Changes to the software that can't make it into the documentation
because the books are either finishing the run at the printer or that
the books are in the warehouse waiting for the software to arrive for
shipping.
2.  Cost of Goods.  If a product sells to a distributor for, say $200,
COG can be 15% - $25.  That's $25 for the package, disks, disk labels,
keyboard templates, collateral materials, registration card, and
documentation.  Let's say that the documentation itself is 10% ($20)
COG.  I don't think that software companies are doing too poor a job.
The manuals MUST be comprehensive.  Third party books rarely are.

3.  Errata sheets and README files.  These are caused by #1 above.
Documentation must ship with the software.  Third party books don't have
to ship with the software.

>[......]In fact the quickest write the book BEFORE the product is out.

What's wrong with that?  You give the impression that the author has no
idea what s/he's documenting.  A *good* author of a third party book
will work with the development, marketing and documentation teams before
the product ships.  Many, many authors use the company's own
documentation as an important source for their own books.  Must be
something good there for an author to rely on it.



-- part contents for background part 45
----- text -----
Re: HyperTalk Books, How to Judge?